Kyoto University student team wins gold medal at the iGEM Synthetic Biology competition (31 October – 3 November 2014)

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Marking its tenth anniversary, the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition held a five-day Giant Jamboree at Hynes Convention Center in Boston from 31 October to 3 November 2014, in which 245 university teams across 32 countries took part. The team from Kyoto University -- named iGEM Kyoto 2014 that comprised mainly first-year and second-year students from the Faculties of Science, Agriculture, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Medicine, and Education -- participated in the event along with nine other university teams from Japan, including teams from the University of Tokyo, and Tokyo Institute of Technology.

In this competition, each of the participating teams presented their experimental results on a selected theme using E . coli or Bacillus subtilis , etc by way of a presentation in English, a poster session, and a collaborative wiki site (see link below). In this way, the teams competed based on how the genetic parts they engineered worked, and how original and feasible their projects were. As a result, the Kyoto University team successfully won a gold medal.

Our project themes for iGEM 2014

"We designed two projects for iGEM 2014. One focused on the formation of magnetosomes in E . coli . Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) have organelles called magnetosomes that comprise magnetic, iron-mineral crystals surrounded by a coating known as the magnetosome membrane. We succeeded in forming a magnetosome-like vesicle in E . coli and observing this formation using an electron microscope.

The second theme involved trying to make E . coli that can produce dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a source of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN), which are also known as cloud seeds. Although there are many types of materials that can act as CCN, we chose to focus on DMS as a source of CCN with the aim of developing a methionine (Met) – dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) – DMS route. We successfully demonstrated the first step, resulting in partial reconstitution of DMS synthesis in E . coli ."

iGEM Kyoto 2014 Team

Toshiro Shimizu, Kohei Kambayashi, Stéphanie Chartrand, Takahiro Kato, Motoharu Nakamura, Mizuki Yamaura, Momoe Sukegawa, Yusuke Yasuda, Yusuke Tatsui, Daichi Shimazaki, Tadakatsu Honda, Koichi Inoue, Hao Li, Yutaka Murata, Hideaki Tsujii, Yuto Kita, Sora Matsumoto, Yuji Yamauchi, Mitsuaki Yoshida, Ai Ito, Marie Ikeguchi, and Harunori Kawai

Conducting an experiment

At the poster session

All participants at iGEM 2014

About iGEM

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a worldwide competition that fosters undergraduate education and the advancement of synthetic biology. Participating teams are encouraged to set their own goals and carry out experiments, thinking outside the box. Throughout the event, the teams showcase their achievements through presentations, poster sessions, and collaborative wiki sites. The competition is based on originality and applicability of ideas. The teams are also required to address issues relating to the safety and ethical implications of their work.

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